You'd better cool it off, before you burn it out

Even though Fall masquerades as a lighthearted season, things can become stressful at a moments notice. When did Thanksgiving go from 10 to 23 people? Why is Christmas music playing in Walgreens? How did I misplace all of my coats? Was it the wrong choice to not return the extra Halloween candy? Insanity. Sometimes, we even manage to add more stress to our lives by making dumb-biddy choices, such as:
1. Frying the turkey while drinking 
2. Venturing out on Black Friday while still doped on tryptophan
3. Vowing to make everyone homemade treats for Christmas (let's be serious, not everyone appreciates flavored salt)
During these times of madness, I enjoy making things that I know always turn out nicely, if not beautifully. This weekend, I made Chai-Spiced Banana Bread for a dear friend and pesto with the last of the herbs before Jack Frost ate them. 

PESTO
Let me just make something very clear. I am not the authority on proper pesto making. I just think it's scrummy and I like making it with things that are on hand. This pesto happened to have basil, parsley, pecorino, cashews, garlic, and olive oil. In my eyes, a good pesto always has nuts or seeds that act as a binding agent, a bit of sharp cheese, garlic, and basil. The beauty of this sauce is you can combine most things together and they won't backfire on you. I pulsed all of these ingredients together in a food processor and drizzled in oil until I had a pleasing consistency. 

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Chai-Spiced Banana Bread

The banana bread ended up being a birthday treat for an old friend. Like pesto, banana bread can be made with an abundance of alterations that are usually tasty. To make this bread, I mashed the bananas, and then added the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter to the mix. Then I got an idea. I got a wonderful, awful idea. I tossed a chai tea bag into the butter that was browning. At this point my mother would say, "there goes the only chance that bread had". However, this choice actually worked in giving the depth I wanted. 

After I mixed the dry ingredients, I poured the wet mixture in and mixed with a spoon just til the two combined. The batter went into a greased, lined loaf pan and went in the oven for about half an hour (I ended up using a fatty pan, which would explain the short holiday in the oven).

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Recipes:

Bread (adapted from "Scientifically Sweet")

350 F 9x5 pan 50-55 min

3 large bananas, mashed

1 ½ cups (215 g) all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ cup (165g) packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
4 tbsp (56 g) melted butter, slightly cooled 

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pesto

1 1/2 c basil

1/2 c parsley

1/2 c olive oil

1/4 c cashews

2 Tbsp pecorino 

1 Tbsp minced garlic

salt and pepper